A few years ago my friend Bob left his phone in an Uber we shared after a Giants game. We realized the error, got in touch with Uber who connected us with the driver, and a few hours later were reunited with our old driver and Bob’s phone. We tipped the driver close to $100 for the return. New phones are expensive, and we recognized that the time he spent coordinating and making a drop-off with us was time he wasn’t spending working. As it turns out, we were in the minority.

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Most people don’t take the driver into consideration when asking for an item to be returned. While the driver is a contractor with Uber, they’re not an employee, which means when they’re delivering your item back that’s essentially a personal trip for them. You’re preventing them from picking up other fares and asking them to spend their time and gas money to do you, a person whom they just met for 10 minutes, a favor. It’s a big of a big ask for a stranger.

Driver’s forums are littered with reports of people like us requesting the return of lost items, and when they’re returned not even offering so much as a “thank you” to the driver who took the time to come find them. It’s a pain point for Uber drivers (as it should be), and in an increasingly competitive market, it’s something Uber needed to address in order to keep those drivers driving for Uber, rather than making the move to Lyft (although most drivers in SF at least seem to work for both already). Lyft currently will put in touch with a driver about a lost item, and suggests you tip them when it’s returned, but doesn’t require it.

Other recent updates include the ability to tip within the Uber app, and a feature that prevents driver’s ratings from getting dinged for things that are out of their control, like bad traffic.

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I’d argue that the move is a win-win for both parties. For drivers, they’re not losing a significant amount of income when they make the decision to do you a solid and return your lost bag, which in turn should make them much more willing to come find you on a Friday night and get you that item back.

And when they do bring your phone, or wallet, or stuffed animal back, you should still tip your driver extra, even on top of that $15 fee. A good rule of thumb: think about how much money the driver could have made while helping you out and then double it. Triple it for expensive items like laptops and brand new smartphones. Just think of how much cheaper it’ll be than buying an entirely new phone.